The Dunhuang Grottoes are both a rare
national treasure of China as well as a unique cultural heritage of all mankind. They
stand out among the art treasures of the world by virtue of their colossal scale, the
centuries-long span of history of their creation and preservation, the kaleidoscopic
richness and variety of their contents, the consummate skill of the artists, and not the
least, the remarkably good condition in which they have been preserved.

Since Dunhuang was at the hub of cultural
exchanges between China and the West along the "Silk Road", the caves of
Dunhuang possess a special geographical and cultural significance. In the past, the
nationalities of Wusun, Yuezhi and Huns had lived in this area. Dunhuang province and the
gateway of Yang Guan and Yumen Guan were established in the Han Dynasty: envoys, merchants
and monks from China going abroad and their Western counterparts entering China had to
pass through these passes. We may, therefore, say that since ancient times, Dunhuang has
been the metropolis of "intercourse between China and other nations"--- an area
of intercultural synergism. Dunhuang art is inevitably a result of the blend of
multitudinous elements and styles, but it remains a part and parcel of the cultural and
art system of China.

Buddhist cave art originated in
India and spread to the Western Regions where it assimilated the local elements and
underwent various transformations. The original Indian rock-cut architectural style of the
vih¡ras and caityas assumed new forms, and by the time it reached Dunhuang, it became
even more removed from its Indian style. The chan ku (dhy¡na-guh¡) or meditation
caves and the narrow corridors of Dunhuang are different from the Indian pillared hall.
Both sides of the corridor are attached to small meditation cells which are an exact
replica of the dhy¡na-guh¡
of Subashi in Kuca. The central-column (caitya) caves
of the Northern Wei were different from the caves with a pillared hall and a central
st£pa native to India. The former developed from the tunnel caves of Bamiyan in
Afghanistan and underwent a transformation at Kizil in the Western Regions. During the
latter half of Northern Wei, the central column developed into a multi-storeyed
st£pa
of
Chinese pavilion style. However, the functional aspect of the caitya, i.e., allowing the
devotees to circumbulate around the st£pa
was still preserved. The back chamber of such
caves has a flat chessboard ceiling while the front chamber has an inverted V-shaped
ceiling. Chinese style altars are carved out from both the walls below the ends of the
inverted V.

Flying figure, Cave No. 25, Yulin Grottoes,
Middle Tang

The
architecture of early caves at Dunhuang was enriched by the integration of features of
Chinese wooden architecture. The ceiling shaped like an inverted dipper was transformed
into a decorated canopy from the Sui and Tang dynasties onwards. The central altar has
steps leading to it in the front and a rear screen at the back with railings on all sides.
On the outer walls of the altar are painted the gates, celestial musicians and animal
decorative motifs. On the inner walls of the altar are painted sets of continued screens.
The caves show a process of secularization which in turn meant an increase in the
assimilation of the palace architectural style, augmenting their Chinese flavour.

All ancient civilizations of the world have their own flying
deities. The Greeks have cherubims, their angels with wings. The Chinese "yuren"
with feathers growing out of their arms are popularly known as flying fairies. Indians
have winged angels as well as flying figures with halos, surrounded by floating clouds.
The Dunhuang flying figures originated in India. After entering Kuca they assumed a round
face, handsome eyes and a short and stout body. They continued to be represented in the
nude in the original Indian style but were shown with a big Persian scarf wound around
them and not riding on the clouds. After these figures reached Dunhuang, they merged with
the symbolism of Chinese flying fairies, the yuren. By the end of the 5th century, they
had been given plump faces, long eyebrows and slit eyes, the hair tied in a top knot and
the semi-naked upper torso covered by a big scarf over the shoulders. There were no
haloes. These became the flying figures of the Chinese style in Dunhuang.

The Sui emperors were obsessed with flying
figures. They constructed mechanical devices in their palaces so that flying figures could
raise the curtains, as if recreating scenes from the Buddhist paradise. This was the time
when the art of flying figures at Dunhuang reached its zenith. During the Sui Dynasty they
appeared in large numbers in a variety of postures and moods. The Sui caves at Dunhuang
display an extravaganza that included not the flying figures alone: the musicians in
Devapura also take on wings and are shown in circular flight around the caves.

The flying figures of the Tang Dynasty
neither had wings nor rode on the clouds, but they flew gently and danced in a carefree
manner in the sky by means of a long scarf exactly as the famous Chinese poet, Li Bai, has
described in his poem:

Cave art originated from India. In
the Indian caves, the proportions of the body, the postures and facial expressions of the
figures were all constructed in the realistic manner but the treatment was, at the same
time, highly imaginative. The figures showed a strong sex distinction both in their
physique and in expression: the male figures had plump faces, moustaches and robust
bodies. The female figures had round faces, big eyes, long eyebrows, thick lips, full
breasts, slim waists, broad hips and bare feet. The sex organs of male and female figures
were also clearly shown. The Kucan figures had inherited this style but did not favour the
appearance of naked deities. After entering Gaochang, the Indian Bodhisattvas lost their
gender distinctions. The eight categories of supernatural beings present behind the Buddha
also lacked distinctions of age and sex. This feature may be observed in the figures of a
majority of the early Dunhuang caves. On the one hand, it conformed with the Buddhist
preaching that in BuddhakÀetra there is no sex distinction, and on the other hand, it was
also in line with the Confucian value system which shunned physiological differences
between the sexes and regarded the exhibition of nudity as an affront to tradition and
morality. From the Sui Dynasty onwards, the Bodhisattvas underwent a clear process of
feminization. The faces of the deities became plump and charming. Greenish moustaches
appeared over the lips, the chests were flat and the postures elegant and graceful. Dao
Xuan, the eminent monk-scholar of Early Tang, observed: "During the Song and Qi
Dynasties (420-502) Bodhisattvas had thick lips, high noses, long eyes, plump
cheeks...like strong men. From the Tang Dynasty onwards, the Bodhisattvas began to
resemble female celestial musicians painted in soft strokes. Thus, today we compare palace
maids with Bodhisattvas." The figures of the Bodhisattvas painted by Zhao Gongyou
were colourful, soft and beautiful, with mysterious clothes and beautiful eyes, like those
of the court ladies. People lamented that the real purpose behind the painting of
Bodhisattvas was lost. Both the Dunhuang and Heartland painters made the images/dunhuang of
Bodhisattvas more feminine and worldly in order to "please the viewers". The
Dunhuang murals bear witness to this trend.

Portraits of the Donors in Dunhuang Caves: A Special
Class of Portrait Painting in Chinese Art

We have not yet discovered this category of paintings in the Indian
Buddhist caves. The caves of Kuca have some portraits of the donors among the murals but
they are rarely accompanied by inscriptions. In contrast, in Dunhuang, even in the earlier
caves during the latter half of the Sixteen Kingdoms, we see groups of portraits of donors
labelled by inscriptions, lining up the walls. Their presence may be attributed to the
Confucian tradition of ancestor-worship. The practice of making portraits of ancestors
which had already been in vogue from the Han Dynasty onwards gained a special place for
the donors and benefactors in Buddhism here.

Initially, only the individual donors were
portrayed. Later, the entire family or a clan became subjects of portraits. From the
Western Wei onwards, this trend transformed the Buddhist temples into family temples,
reaching a peak during the Tang Dynasty, as may be seen in Cave No. 220 of the sixteenth
year of the Zhenguan Era (642), also known as the "Zhai Family Cave". From Zhai
Siyuan to his ninth-generation descendant, Zhai Fengda of the Five Dynasties, the cave had
built up a visual genealogical tree in the murals for a span of 280 years. Zhai Fengda
even had the portraits of his next and third generation painted in the cave, extending the
genealogical record to ten-odd generations. This was truly a family temple!

In Cave No. 98 dating from the Five
Dynasties, we have another "Cao Yijin Cave", where there are altogether 169
portraits of the donors. They include portraits of the Zhang and Suo families who were
related to the Cao family. Cao's son-in-law, the Khotan King Li Shengtian, officers of the
military command as well as Cao family's relations, Uighur Princesses, Cao Yijing and his
immediate descendants for three generations including daughters and sons-in-law, all are
arranged according to seniority. There is also a group of huge life-size and
larger-than-life portraits, even more prominently displayed than Buddha and Bodhisattvas.
Moreover, their portraits have made a circle around the cave in great style as if they
were there not to pay homage to Buddha, but to parade themselves and to be worshipped by
their admirers --- almost setting up a cult of the Cao family. This is a classic instance
of the reflection of China's feudal society and patriarchal order in the Buddhist cave art
milieu.

Ma¡y¡na Buddhism prospered in
China and developed into many sects. All the major texts such as the
Saddharma-pu¸·ar¢ka S£tra, the Avatamsaka
S£tra, the Vimalak¢rti-nirde¿a S£tra, the Amit¡bha S£tra, the Maitreya S£tra, etc. have been represented
through detailed illustrations at Dunhuang. Usually, an entire painting is composed around
a single s£tra. Similarly, a
J¡taka also makes a whole painting, which can also be
passed off as a s£tra
illustration. However, a huge s£tra
illustration is a collection
of many stories. We do not come across any such illustration among the Buddhist monuments
in any Buddhist country before the second half of the sixth century, nor do we have any
examples in Central Asia. This is the exclusive creation of Chinese painting masters in
order to propagate the teachings of the Buddhist scriptures.

The information we have at present based on the known
ancient paintings shows that as early as the latter half of the Northern Wei huge
illustrations of Sukh¡vat¢ and
Vimalak¢rti had already appeared in Chinese style. In
general, Dunhuang was a step behind the style prevailing in "heartland" China.
The illustration of s£tra
began in the "heartland" from the Sui Dynasty
onwards and reached a climax by the Tang. In all, there are 1,102 large depictions of
twenty-odd sµutras in various Tang caves. Prominent among them are the illustrations of
Sukh¡vat¢,
BhaiÀajyaguru, Maitreya,
Vimalak¢rti, as also from the
S£tra of Bao'en
jing (S£tra for Redemption from Indebtedness) and Miyan jing (Ghanavyµuha
S£tra).
If we add to these the illustrations of the J¡taka stories, the number will go up to
approximately 1,350. This entitles Dunhuang Grottoes to proclaim itself as the greatest
kingdom of illustrations of Mah¡y¡na
S£tras in the world today. Particularly from the
Tibetan periods onwards, depictions of various Buddhist sects were put together in a
single cave, vying with one another in magnificence and style.

Vimalakirti Sutra, Cave No. 159, Middle Tang

The s£tra illustrations are the concrete manifestations of
abstract tenets. In the process of concretization, scenes of magnificent palace buildings,
pavilions and gardens are transposed to the paintings. In these s£tra illustrations we
see an aesthetic universe further divided by religious, political and ethical realms. We
have here special Chinese features of the synthesis of the three schools of Buddhism,
Taoism and Confucianism.

Music and dance make up the totality of the
Dunhuang murals which project art as an entity composed of multiple elements. We have
three major categories of music:

Heartland Chinese music as accompaniment
for song and dance, such as "Qingshang" music and "Yan" music;

Music for song and dance from the Western
Regions, such as Kucan music and Shule (Kashghar) music; and

Foreign music for song and dance such as
"Tianzhu" (Indian) music.

The most popular music for song and dance
in the Hexi Corridor was the "Western Liang Tune" (xiliangyue) which was
a synthesis of the tune from Kuca with that of "heartland" China. With the
prosperity of the "Silk Road" and development of Buddhist art in Dunhuang,
Indian music left a deep impact on the tunes prevalent at Dunhuang.

Musicians and dancers, Cave No. 220, Early Tang

The music for song and dance in Dunhuang murals can further
be divided into two categories: the celestial and the secular tune. The so-called
celestial music comprises the tunes created during the appearance of the deities in the
world of BuddhakÀetra. We see the tune when the celestial musician is represented all
over the Dunhuang caves of the early period. We also see it in the giant canvases of
magnificent life of the Sukh¡vat¢ created in their grandeur during the Tang Dynasty,
such as the scenes of "Huxuan" (foreign) dance painted in Cave No. 220 and
"zhezhi" (lotus) dance in Cave No. 217. The secular music includes the music
played in the song and dance of real life. In "the Painting of Zhang Yichao on his
journey" we see the music played by his singers and dancers. We also see it in the
musical band (qingshangji) and acrobatic show in another painting depicting his
wife, the "Lady of Song". We see it again in the dance scene in the painting
called "Marriage" when the lute is being played to the liuyao tune. The Devas
participating in the celestial music and the mudr¡s and postures of Bodhisattvas are
those who convey the music of Indian dances. But all the musical tunes were internalized
by the artists of the Tang Dynasty and were absorbed into the gigantic system of Chinese
music and dance in the spirit of continuous synthesis, characteristic of China's national
ethos.

The cave art of Dunhuang derived from the
style and technique of Buddhist art of the Western Regions. Its main purpose was to exalt
the noble examples of the life of Buddha and stories about his previous lives in
accumulating philanthropic virtues. Thus, we have a vigorous propagation of tragic themes
such as Prince Sattva feeding himself to the tigress, King áibi cutting off his flesh to
feed the eagle, King Chandraprabha offering his head to a Brahmin a thousand times,
Sush¡nti feeding his parents with his own flesh. Through this propagation of the
spirit of self-sacrifice, the ultimate idealism of becoming a Buddha is kept alive.

Musicians and dancers, Cave No. 220, Early Tang

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there
were periods of national unification and great progress in political economy which gave
rise to the sudden rage for the illustrations of Mah¡y¡na S£tras.

The depictions of the paradise scenes of
Maitreya, of BhaiÀajyaguru, and of
Amit¡bha and also of the episodes from the
Saddharma-pu¸·ar¢ka S£tra and the Vimalak¢rti-nirde¿a-S£tra replaced the dominant
tragic mood of the earlier scenes of sadness and tragedy with scenes of peace and
prosperity: represented by high-rise buildings and pavilions and magnificent singing and
dancing. Beliefs that one can attain Buddhahood immediately after death or reach
Sukh¡vat¢ by chanting the scriptures for only seven days have replaced the earlier
idea of becoming the enlightened one only after an endlessly long course of asceticism.
The following set of beliefs are now held by the devotees:

Blessings for the deceased: Hoping
the souls of one's late parents and ancestors be liberated from Hell and reborn in
Sukh¡vat¢.

Blessings for the living: Some
manuscripts of Dunhuang paintings read: "Wishing that my family members hold good
positions and have a peaceful life"; "Wishing that my old mother and all her
descendants be delivered from sufferings"; and "Wishing that my master, the Duke
of Cao, be safe and sound" and so on.

Attaining Buddhahood (a general wish):
Some manuscripts have the following prayers: "Praying that all the dead souls take
birth in
Sukh¡vat¢"; "Wishing that all the beings of this world attain
enlightenment" and "Wishing all beings to become Buddha at once". Among all
the instances, the strongest desire is to have blessings for the living. For example, in
the illustrations of chapter on Samantamukha in the Saddharma-pu¸·ar¢ka
S£tra and Avalokite¿vara S£tra as well as Sahasrabhuja-Sahasranetra
Avalokite¿vara, there are
numerous scenes which show that if the suffering beings chant the name of
Avalokite¿vara,
they will be delivered from their suffering instead of attaining Buddhahood after death.
Thus, the aim of the paintings depicting
Sukh¡vat¢ is to obtain deliverance from the
sufferings of this world and to go to
Sukh¡vat¢ to attain Buddhahood through the
worship of Buddha. But this is easier said than done because of the nine hierarchical
qualifications which pursue one's life even up to the paradise. Buddhist theology has
undergone a thousand years of transformation in China through the influence of the
Confucian ethics rooted firmly in this life and in this world.

The Dunhuang murals derive their technique
from two sources: one is the traditional Chinese mural technique, based on the experience
of tomb murals of the Han and Jin Dynasties; the other is the one which came from India
via the Western Regions. Both these sources have their distinct national features,
reflected in characterization, line drawing, composition, colouring and capturing of the
mood. In this paper, I shall focus only on the two entirely different methods of
three-dimensional effect used in the cave murals.

"Aotufa" or the Indian technique
that has travelled to China from the Western Regions aims at creating a three-dimensional
effect by varying the pigments to effect light and shade. This method which has spread
from Ajanta had already undergone many modifications before reaching Dunhuang. What the
Dunhuang artists have learnt is the usage of reddish-pink colour for painting the body,
vermilion-red for the eye-sockets, nose, wings and the contours of face in order to
highlight light and shade, and finally using white for the bridge of the nose and the eye-
ball because these parts are the brightest. With the passage of time, the pigments have
changed colour. The muscles have taken on a greyish-black colour; this is particularly
true with the white bridge of the nose, resulting in the appearance of the Chinese
character in the face. This colouring technique prevailed in the Dunhuang caves for more
than 250 years.

The traditional Chinese colouring technique
is a simple one in contrast to the Indian three-dimensional method. Only a red patch is
painted on the cheeks and on the upper eyelids which nevertheless imparts a
three-dimensional effect. This technique was introduced from the Warring States period and
came to maturity during Western Han. It entered Dunhuang by the end of the fifth century
where it co-existed for nearly a hundred years with the light-and-shade technique of the
Western Regions. At the end of the sixth century during the Sui Dynasty, the western and
Chinese colouring techniques fused into one, which relied mainly on colouring variations
combined with light and shade touches. In the beginning of the seventh century (Tang
Dynasty), a brand-new Chinese three-dimensional technique was evolved.

In the early phases of Dunhuang art, the
thrust was on the illustration of Buddha's sermons, Buddha's life-story, the
J¡taka
tales which focus on Buddha's previous lives in self-sacrifice to rescue others, and also
those Buddhist stories which expound the working of Karma. In addition, there were a
thousand meditating Buddhas. This range of contents exalted the attainment of
Enlightenment through the practices of the six p¡ramit¡s (commandments)
and the achievement of a sombre and tranquil mood.

During the late Northern Wei, there
appeared in Dunhuang the sacred figures of Taoism, such as the god Dongwanggong, goddess
Xiwangmu, Fuxi, N£wa, the Necromancer, the four guardian angels (the Red Bird,
Xuanwu, Green Dragons and White Tigers) and the winged angels, in addition to the warrior
Wuhuo. Scenes of floating and swirling clouds and celestial flowers also appeared to
create a dynamic scenario. Bodhisattvas with "elegant bones and handsome faces"
painted in the style of South China are seen wearing a long gown and shoes with high heels
and raised front. These were the images/dunhuang of Chinese elite. We have in these paintings a
reflection of Buddhism internalizing Taoist mythology after it had settled in China.

From the Sui and Tang dynasties onwards
there appeared many fake s£tras authored by the Chinese. Bao fumu enzhong jing
(s£tras for Redemption from Indebtedness) was an adopted version of Xiaojing
(Canon of Filial Piety) produced by Chinese writers. Some caves of the Tang Dynasty
contain illustrations of this s£tra. The central portion is given to Buddha while the
surrounding walls feature the ten months' cycle of a child during pregnancy, the different
stages of rearing the child into a grown-up, the son's disobedience to his father and
other kinds of misbehaviour against his parents. This is not a propagation of Buddhism but
an exaltation of Confucian filial piety. At the heart of several illustrations of
"Sukh¡vat¢" we discover the political and ethical realms of Confucianism.
A scholar of the Southern and Northern Dynasties has aptly said, "If Buddha had been
born in China, he would have been Confucius and if Confucius had been born in the West he
would have been Buddha."

In the middle of the third century B.C.,
King A¿oka patronized Buddhism in a big way. Buddhist art developed in India in the first
century. The Hellenistic style of Buddhist art appeared in Gandh¡ra and subsequently
spread to other countries. Around the second century, it entered Khotan from Afghanistan.
In the Minfeng tomb of Han style, south of Tianshan Range in Xinjiang, we discover the
Hellenistic style of Bodhisattva images/dunhuang and the Chinese dragon design. In the temple ruins
of Nuoqiang we discover the painting of Sud¡n¡ J¡taka. At the same time, to
the north of Tianshan Range, centring around Kuca, we come across the art style of Bamiyan
from the Kizil caves which merged with Kucan customs and folklore to create the typical
Kucan story paintings.

However, Kucan art still carried within it
elements of Indian, Afghan and Persian influence. More important is the contribution of
Chinese painting. Hence a multi-faceted style of Western Regions came into existence.

Since the Jin Dynasty, Gaochang has always
been governed by a Chinese regime, and Chinese culture has been deep-rooted. The nude
paintings which came from the west were resisted by Confucian ideology. The sex of the
Bodhisattvas was underplayed. Buddha and other deities became sexless celestial beings.
The painting style here was closely associated with the "heartland" Chinese
style. Gaochang was thus really the starting station of intercultural synergism in art
between China and the West.

After the spread of Buddhist art to
Dunhuang, more elements of Chinese culture were internalized from the very inception. We
see examples of this in the gate-shaped altar, the inverted V-shaped ceiling, group
painting in serials, and in the free and bold stroke work. However, the western style was
still being preserved. During Northern Wei, the sinicization of figures and development of
comic-strip compositions were in evidence. Although the Indian and Persian elements are
still visible in the style, due to the westward expansion of Buddhist art of
"heartland" China, especially that of South China (under the regimes of the
Southern Dynasties), the heartland style became prominent in theme, characterization, line
drawing, colouring and in its stereoscopic effect. This development took the process of
sinicization in Dunhuang cave art to a high tide. At the same time, the Western style and
the Heartland style interacted and also co-existed at Dunhuang, creating a new situation.
After the Taihe Era (828-835), the "heartland" painting style spread to Western
Regions, Central Asia and India along with the travels of Chinese monks such as Songyun,
Huisheng and others to India. The Dunhuang Grottoes were undoubtedly the melting pot of
the culture and art of China and the Western styles.

Translated by Sonu Agnihotri

This was a paper presented by Prof. Duan
Wenjie at the international seminar on "Cave Art of India and China",